engleski

The differences in intrinsic motivation between prepubertal children engaged in two sport programs

The intrinsic motivation (IM) in sport, i.e. exercising because of enjoyment in the activity itself is the subject of numerous studies ( Ryan et al. 1997., Frederic et al. 1998) . The purpose of this study is to determine if the difference in IM exists between two groups of prepubertal children who participate in two different sport programs. The sample consists of 108 children aged 10-11 yr.The experimental group (EG-54 subjects) attended sports training practice four times a week and control group (CG-54 s.) had regular physical education (PE), two times a week.Both groups answered to the IM inventory (Mc Auley et al 1989.) at the beginning and at the end of the school year.The inventory items were, for the sake of analysis, grouped into four factors: enjoyement, competence, effort and tension. There were no differences in four IM factors at the beginning of the school year. But significant differences (discriminant analysis, R= 0.36, x?= 14.52, p< 0.006) were found in the second testing. The discriminative function was primarily determined by enjoyement (-1.08), then competence (0.68), tension (-0.53) and effort (-0.24). After a year of exercising EG (discr.mean = -0.38) enjoys exercise more than CG (discr.mean = 0.38), but feels more tension, according to which invests more effort, while CG feels more competent. Because EG practised sports more thoroughly than CG, EG estimated their achievement more realistic and experienced program as a challenge, therefore feeling not as competent as CG. The regular PE program, which was not very demanding itself, might have been experienced as dull and not so enjoyable by the CG.

intrinsic motivation ; differences ; prepubertal children

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